Randidly’s days fell into a rather satisfying pattern while he remained on the farm.

In the mornings before dawn he would rove around the property, checking for image fragments and replacing the pieces of the climate-altering Nether Ritual that had begun to fade. He investigated every plant he stumbled across and checked on the new group of land walruses that he had found and wrangled to provide the farm with meat.

Luckily, these fellows seemed particularly non-picky about their feed.

Afterward, he would sit and talk to Armel about the ongoing construction of the farmhouse expansion. The rather dramatic Jotem had engaged in a heated argument with the impromptu architect about the scale and ‘artistic influences’ of the additions, but they soon fell into a silence close enough to agreement that Randidly gladly didn’t get involved. He had a few requests to improve the comfort of his own room, but that was it.

After lunch, he proceeded to keep his emotions clean and refine his emotional affect for each of his images. It was during that time that most of the Nether Core revving occurred, as he gradually pulled more and more of his capability into the memory without the most minor of image manifestations shaking everything to pieces. In essence, he began to reinforce the memory to withstand his presence, which was a slightly bemusing thought.

Ever since I’ve become the Alpha Cosmos, I’ve put on a few pounds, Randidly patted his stomach in mock sorrow. Maybe I should go on a planetary diet?

In the evenings, he discussed Nether patterns with Demetrius while watching Bogart try his best to chase the Arakis Beasts. By this point, the devil man had earned bites up and down his arms. The little beasts snickered and snapped at him, even when he wasn’t trying to catch them, driving him to furiously prowl, glaring around every corner of the farm.

At night, Randidly refined his Nether further and unfolded his perspective to try and peer into the ‘future’ of the memories. The significance was heavy in the environment, but he couldn’t just drag out its secrets. He accomplished very little, but the habit of familiarizing himself with the patterns was useful. Occasionally, he contemplated what his Nether Penance would be, but it was mostly just musings.

He gradually worked up his nerve to return to the memory area and challenge his next core of negative emotion. He kept himself calm and sharpened the Grey Creature’s hunger. There were occasional growing pains, but largely the image understood he was working on the issue.

Eight days after sending out the letters, a squat frog-looking individual road up through the trench to the homestead. Randidly had widened the passage considerably during one of his freer mornings, meaning the pony and cart the man brought with him didn’t have any difficulty pulling up in front of the carrot patch. Randidly glanced up from the garden, where he and Demetrius were bent over pulling out the forearm-sized carrots.

They both nodded to the frog and then got back to their work. A few seconds later, Jotem glided out of the newly renovated two-story farmhouse in an intricate lavender robe that he had begged Randidly to embroider with jade thread. Randidly wasn’t sure about the color combination, but the workmanship was excellent. “Oh Battywuck! Please excuse my dress and the state of the farm-- we were right in the middle of the harvest. Can I get you something to drink?”

“Holy fuck,” Battywuck muttered as he hopped down off of the front of his cart and looked around. The apple trees were saplings by now, rustling only slightly from the constant wind. The ends of carrots not yet plucked from the ground stuck up in neat rows. A small paddock containing the land walruses was pressed up against the side of the house, opposite the side with the major expansion. The only clouds allowed through Randidly’s new patterns were wispy, fairy tail white versions. “Obviously I noticed the calm season had come early to Malloon… but this…”

“You are probably reacting to the myriad of small improvements. As they say, concerted effort, many hands, and all that,” Jotem wriggled his fingers. “A bountiful harvest was all but assured by the toil poured into this place! Both with mundane foodstuffs… and Ara Fruits of the highest quality. Which is why you have graced us, I’m sure.”

Randidly pushed him up to his feet and brushed off his knees. He took a recently harvested carrot, rubbed off the worst of the dirt, and offered it to the donkey pulling Battywuck’s cart. After giving him a strange look, the donkey took a nibble. Its eyes brightened immediately and it began crunching into the rest of the carrots. When it finished, it pushed its nose into the basket of harvested carrots. Randidly guided its face away.

Only the first is free, little guy, Randidly grinned. After huffing out a sigh of disappointment, the donkey turned and gave its owner a piteous look.

Still looking around at the transformed farm, Battywuck cleared his throat. “Obviously produce is a reliable staple as a merchant. I’ll take as much as you can sell. Food prices are gonna go up, with all the people flowing into Malloon.”

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“Are not the first contests of skill beginning soon? The preliminaries before the grand Hobfootie tournament?” Jotem leaned closer. “Ara Fruits will be in extremely high demand! Honestly, I wish certain factors didn’t currently restrict my movements, or else I-”

“Let me level with you,” Battywuck turned to look at Jotem. “Yes, I will purchase your Ara Fruits. However… without a grader to examine the meat, I can only give you the price for common Ara Fruits. Your products… were never very good, Jotem. That’s just a fact. So without confirmation-”

“What?!? I poured my heart and soul into those Ara Fruits! They suckled from my sweat and swelled due to my constant labor.” Jotem’s body began to tremble. “And I swear upon my honor these are incomparable to past efforts! Just a single piece of fruit will work any Arakis Beast up into a lather. The sweetness and tart flavor of each bite-”

A massive roar echoed out from South of the farmhouse. Everyone froze except Randidly, who tilted his head to the side. “What was that?”

“A full-grown Arakis Beast working itself into a lather,” Armel gulped. “That’s… incredible timing.”

Battywuck clutched his battered head to his slimy head and hopped back on top of his wagon. “Ahem, obviously, I’ll be around to collect some of the produce later, but something rather pressing has come up-”

“Wait! Does this not prove the efficacy of the fruits?!” Jotem floated over and gripped Battywuck’s robes. Another roar boomed out over the area, this time closer. “The sweet nectar contained within is irresistible.”

“Oh fine, you fool, your Ara Fruits should be graded at least medium,” Battywuck shook Jotem off and pulled on the reins of his donkey. The cart began rapidly heading down the wide trench toward the main road. Battywuck glanced back one more time. “However, will any of those fruits be left after this beast has eaten his fill? From the volume, he has reached his full growth. I’ll return in a few days to barter over the scraps, I suppose.”

With that, he was gone, the donkey casting one last longing look over its shoulder at the basket of carrots. Randidly took off his gloves, used a burst of image to eradicate all the spare dirt from his robe, and then began walking back toward his Ara Fruit canyon. He waved Demetrius back to the carrot patch. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll handle this.”

“Indeed? Well, I won’t get in your way.” Jotem fled back within the house. Armel shot a worried glance at Randidly, but ultimately did the same. When he walked back through the mound labyrinth, he was only followed by Bogart and the three juvenile Arakis Beasts; Demetrius continued to harvest carrots, despite the hubbub.

Randidly arrived at the close side of the him-made canyon right as the full-grown Arakis Beast reached the far end. It was a hulking beast the size of an elephant, with powerful, armored limbs. Its forelegs especially had several curved spikes jutting out from its length. Compared to the three miniature ones that lurked around the farm, the eyes of this full-grown variant were a dull red. The emotional aura it released pulsed with aggressive violence.

It noticed him and sneered. The Beast opened its mouth and trumpeted out a massive noise that buzzed through all the Ara Fruits. But in the end, it was just a loud noise. Randidly planted his foot and lowered his shoulders. Then he accelerated, blasting through the thin passage and releasing a sonic boom that caused all the hanging fruits to shake like Christmas ornaments during an earthquake.

To the large beast’s credit, it saw and reacted to his movement; it wasn’t just size and armor. It hopped back, landed on its own massive claws, and then launched itself back forward. It had trained this movement. Its neck extended and his jaws snapped at him.

With a light drag of his toe, Randidly spun his body and slipped past the bite. He pressed a palm against the Arakis Beast’s body to disperse his momentum. The Beast grunted and raised itself up, preparing to swing those armored forelegs. Without much tension, Randidly spun and brought Sulfur around to land a clobbering blow on its chest. Not too hard, because he didn’t exactly want to kill it.

The beast’s eyes widened as its ribcage cracked. After a few staggering steps backward, it just collapsed onto the ground. Its breath wheezed through its mouth as its two arms flexed ineffectually. Randidly moved next to it and squatted down. He clicked his tongue. “Now, I’m not a huge fan of loud noises. But there is no reason that we can’t live in peace, eh?”

The beast nodded its head rather frantically.

Randidly grinned down at it. He much preferred the intelligent wildlife of the old Nexus. “You’ll be in charge of guarding the fruits here. In exchange, I’ll spare your life now and feed you some of them occasionally. Take your job seriously; if any Ara Fruits are missing, I don’t care who actually did it. You will be held responsible. Do you understand?”

This time, the best took longer to make its decision. It blinked its dark eyes several times, indignation and fear warring inside of its heart. Randidly waited. These sorts of situations weren’t enough to disturb the fabric of the memory, let alone make him feel any tension. Eventually, whatever it saw in his eyes broke its spirit. It bowed its head and nodded.

Randidly patted its side and inserted some of his healing image into its body to speed up the recovery process. “Good. Take a day to familiarize yourself with the area. I’ll check back tomorrow to see how you are.”

With a few quick steps, Randidly flew back over to the near portion of the canyon. Bogart was there, looking at him with bulging eyes. However, Randidly quickly fixated on the trembling and collapsed bodies of the other Arakis Beasts. All three had collapsed and blood leaked out of their eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. “What the hell happened to them?”

Bogart shrugged. “They tried to imprint on your movement. Their eyes started glowing and their innate abilities engaged. But when you actually started moving… one by one, they collapsed. Their bodies… just gave out.”

“Huh,” Randidly said. He gave Bogart a flat look. “Well, catching them now doesn’t count. Make sure they survive, alright?”